Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Update for January 29th to January 31st, 2013

Here’s the latest of our news bulletins from the ongoing crisis at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Nuclear Regulation Authority

Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) has released a final draft of new safety regulations for the nation’s nuclear reactors, which will take effect on July 18. A team of experts drew up the rules, which include guidelines addressing the significant risks posed by earthquakes, tsunamis, other natural disasters, and terrorism. The agency is now inviting comments from outside experts. Nevertheless, plant operators will reportedly be allowed to restart reactors before implementing certain requirements, such as building secondary control rooms in case the first is destroyed as a nuclear disaster is unfolding. Some analysts have charged that the government is making concessions to utilities in order to speed restarts. NRA Chairman Shunichi Tanaka has said that the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) hope that reactors will be restarted within three years is unrealistic.

Chubu Electric admitted this week that it has detected additional damage to reactor #5 at its Hamaoka plant in Shizuoka Prefecture. In May 2011, the government ordered Chubu officials to shut down all five reactors because the plant sits on an area at particularly high risk for a magnitude 8 or higher earthquake. During the shutdown process, the condenser building of reactor #5 was accidentally flooded with 400 tons of seawater, and officials determined that approximately 5 tons of the water may have flooded the reactor itself. The high saline content of the seawater has since caused significant rusting and corrosion, leading to permanent damage. The utility continues to insist that the reactor, which is now covered, is safe and poses no danger to nearby residents.

Officials in Namie town, which at its closest point is located just 5 km from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, have begun to organize medical examinations of children who were 18 years of age or younger in March 2011, when the nuclear disaster first began to unfold. Because of poor information provided by the government and TEPCO, many families evacuated to the far side of the town, approximately 30 km from the plant, in the first days after the crisis began, but unbeknownst to them, radiation levels there were exceedingly high there because of weather patterns that affected the radiation plume. Researchers from Hirosaki University are taking samples of the children’s blood in order to look for chromosomal changes that could indicate cancer or other deleterious effects of the radiation. Results will not be available for several months. The testing is voluntary, and so far, 23% of those eligible have opted to participate. (Source: NHK)

Regarding the Hamaoka plant my understanding is that its operator *uncovered* a seawater contamination of both the secondary and primary water of one unit of the plant after they shut it down but they do not know how long ago the seawater leaks started.
In nuclear reactors, water is used in a closed circuit (similarly to the cooling system of a car) and it should not contain any salt because it causes steel to corrode.
Furthermore, I understand that Hamaoka operator does *not* know for sure whether the seawater damaged the reactor. The problem here is that checking whether the whole unit, including its reactor, has suffered any damage is very expensive, to the point that *scrapping* it becomes an economically viable option.

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(Unregistered) Beppe
says:

Regarding the "new" Japanese NRA, tonight TV Asahi reported that a prominent commissioner of the same leaked internal information to the nuc...

Regarding the "new" Japanese NRA, tonight TV Asahi reported that a prominent commissioner of the same leaked internal information to the nuclear industry, the same that the commission is supposed to regulate. Such leaks have been described as being the norm in the "old" NRA.
This kind of NRA behaviour, alongside with the return to power of the pro-nuclear LDP, puts the country on track for another nuclear disaster the next time a large earthquake/tsunami will hit.

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(Unregistered) Beppe
says:

Multiple layers of subcontracting and the use of temporary workers, coupled with very little government supervision, is a godsend for both criminal or...

Multiple layers of subcontracting and the use of temporary workers, coupled with very little government supervision, is a godsend for both criminal organizations and unscrupolous corporations. According to some sources, this situation was and still is the norm in the Japanese nuclear industry.